happy birthday pumpkin! pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting.

I made these twice...here are some more pictures I took of them!! I have a lot of fun making these and they are a huge hit.

Okay so October 5th was Savy's birthday! He turned 21 and told me he didn't want a cake, but something that wasn't as sweet, and since it's finally getting cool here, I decided there was enough fall in the air to make some pumpkin cupcakes. There are a million recipes online for these, but my favorite one I found was pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting, and let me tell you that they were a HUGE hit. I probably ate half of them but they are definitely a repeat recipe, adapted from Smitten Kitchen, or Honey and Jam. They smell so amazing in the oven, please make these and spread the love ♥

Yeah you need A LOT of stuff for these, but trust me, you'll make em again.

1 cup of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.... don't you leave these spices out!
2 room temperature eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin, don't get the pie filling, it ain't the same thing!
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the Maple Frosting (uhmm....YUUMMM)
6 ounces of cream cheese
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon of maple extract (or mapleine)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 cups of powdered sugar

Okay.....finally, dang.

Get your cute lil muffin pan and line it with your, well line it with your liners!



So I was looking for my 1/2 cup scoop, and WHADDYA KNOW it was in my flour waitin for me.



Okay, you want to combine your flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and your salt all in a bowl, and then just stir it around with a fork really good and set it to the side. Oh go ahead and preheat your oven to 350!!


Now, this is the pumpkin stuff that I got my hands on, it worked out real good.


My conclusion: it looks, smells and tastes like baby food but makes some goooood cupcakes.


Okay in a bigger bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, brown sugar and vegetable oil and stir it all around.


What am I supposed to do with all of this pumpkin? ..man I guess I have to make these again :( booo hoo! :) just kiddin'


Sugarrrr weeeeeeeeeeee!!!


okay now the brown sugar.


Okay, now as you mix your liquidy mixture, slowly pour in your powdery dry mixture and mix a little, then pour a little more in, and mix that up. and then pour a little bit more and yada yada yada. you get it.


Look, it's gorgeous and texturey :) and nope that is not a word. looked it up.


okay now, you have exactly enough batter to fill up 12 spots in a cupcake pan. so fill em up about yay much. cook them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until you stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean!

TIME FOR FROSTING!! :-D


okay I missed a couple steps via pictures, but all you do it stick the butter, cream cheese (both at room temperature i hope) and mix it on low. and now you're caught up :)


Okay, so this is my maple extract. I honestly don't even know what it is, but it said maple and it smelled good so I went for it. Turned out A-Okay.


put your vanilla extract in, and you're weird maple stuff. OR you're maple extract if you go to an awesome grocery store.


Now, slowly add the powdered sugar a little at a time.


And you'll get these heavenly billows of frosting. and billow is a word, look THAT up!


Okay, now you'll wanna put your frosting into a ziploc bag (or a pastry bag if you're a pro), as long as it fits in there it doesn't matter what size. You can do it like me if you want.



by now you're probably dying of how good these things smell. it's warm, it's like fall and the holidays, but they aren't ready! you need to let them COOL! all the way.



put your icing in the freezer and let it get chilled and thick.


take some scissors and snip off a REALLY small corner of the bag.


now here ya go, just pipe it right onto the cupcake. in swirls if you want them to look like mine :) but you can do it however you want!


wellll hey there little cutie!


a buncha cuties!


okay if you want, you can put heath bars on top, just crush em up! I would had more heath bar crumbs but i ate too much of the candy :( oops.

The flavor of these are unbelievable! It's the perfect amount of sweet and the frosting is delicious. Please make these for your family and friends they will LOVE you for it. Josh's friends told me he would buy them off of me, so I gotta go make some extra money ;)